Tatsumi DxD
by EzReality
Summary: After losing his life during Night Raid's final battle, Tatsumi wakes up in a strange place in the company of a young girl named Ophis. She gives him the chance at a new life in exchange for his eternal loyalty. A month later a certain red head tried reincarnating him into her peerage, but what happens when things don't go quite how she planned...? Tatsumi x Ophis x Murayama x ?
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** This story will mostly follow the Highschool DxD timeline. I have yet to decide how powerful Tatsumi will be in this story and I haven't given pairing much thought either. Due to it being set in the DxD universe, there will probably be a harem but as I said, I haven't decided yet.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own the rights to Highschool DxD, Akame ga Kill! or any of the other manga/animes that might find their way into this story.

* * *

A young girl was sitting, legs crosses, with a blank expression on her face. Well it would be more accurate to say that she was floating. There was no solid ground beneath her, yet she managed to remain in the same sitting position, with a straight back and an expressionless face.

The young girl had long black hair reaching down past her hips. Although her eyes were somewhat hidden behind her hair, point tipped pupils could be seen surrounded by deep gray irises. The short girl was wearing a plain white dress with a pink bow tie. She was surrounded by a black cape the same length as her dress, which had a purple bow attached to it over her lower back.

The young girl was sitting/floating in silence, enjoying the solitude of her home. Most may think it to be lonely, but this girl preferred being alone. She thought people were loud, selfish and uncaring. She preferred being surrounded by the quiet emptiness that her home provided, away from the world of the living.

That being said, it was rather odd for someone to be with her in her home. The girl tilted her head, looking down to observe her unconscious guest. Floating unconscious in front of the girl was a young boy of average height. He looked to be around sixteen years of age. He was of average height with medium length brown hair. Although he was unconscious and covered in blood, she thought that he had such an innocent face. Not the naive kind of innocent, just a pure innocence that was so rare to find.

He had been her unknowing companion for quite some time now. She had trouble keeping track of time any more; it didn't matter to her so she usually just forgot about it. She could have been watching over him for a day or a year and she wouldn't have known the difference. Immortality tends to have that effect on people.

As his body stirred for the first time since she bought him to her home, she thought back to when she first found the boy. However long ago it was, she was observing the events of a strange world. Every now and then she would get bored and see what was happening in the many different worlds. When watching an empire on the brink of civil war, this boy had caught her attention.

She remembered how ironic it was when she first discovered his existence. She learnt that this boy's name was Tatsumi, meaning _the sleeping dragon._ If that alone wasn't enough irony for the young girl, no more than five minutes after discovering the boy, he fought and killed some kind of dragon made out of earth.

Catching her attention she kept on watching as the boy lived his life. His naïve arrogance was amusing at first when he left his village to join the armed forces in the capital. He arrived in the large city and expected to become a Captain straight away. After being rejected and falling into a minor depression, he was then robbed blind by a girl who promised to help him get into the armed forces.

Left with nothing but the clothes on his body and the sword on his back, the boy set out in search for his companions that he'd lost on the way to the capital. The day was slowly passing and he had no luck finding them. As the sun was going down the boy was disgruntled to realize that he was alone, in a place he didn't know, with no money.

Out of nowhere a young girl came along to 'save him.' Taking him into her home and giving him food and clean clothes, he was so happy to finally discover the kindness in the capital that he'd heard so much about growing up. His happiness didn't last long when that same night, the house he was staying in was attacked. The girl's parents were murdered by a band of outlaws and they were chasing the girl when he tried to save her.

Jumping between the girl and her attackers Tatsumi warned the outlaws to back off but they simply laughed at him. One of them seemed to recognize him and he was shocked to realize that the girl, who had stolen all of his money, was among the outlaws trying to kill the girl he was trying to protect.

Feeling guilty for taking all of his money, the thief took it upon herself to 'enlighten' Tatsumi by showing him why they were killing this family without mercy. Pointing out a barn like structure to him she told him to go inside and take a look around. Upon entering the barn Tatsumi fell to his knees in shock. On a lower level were at least twenty dead bodies in a gruesome and undignified pile. To make matters worse, looking straight ahead he could see the form of his best friend and traveling companion. He was hanging from a beam barely alive.

The boy told Tatsumi that the family had taken him in as well, giving him food and clean clothes, only to drug him in the night so that they could torture him for their own sick form of entertainment. As further proof of this, the boy pointed to Tatsumi's left. What he saw almost made him vomit, cry and pass out, all at the same time. Lying dead in a cage in the corner of the room was his other travelling companion. A girl that looked the same age as him, and had grown up in the same village as him.

After seeing everything that had happened in that place, Tatsumi killed the girl that the outlaws were after himself. Learning that the group's name was 'Night Raid,' Tatsumi joined them to help battle against the government corruption in the capital that was allowing things like this to happen.

The young girl was so immersed in this world that she almost forgot that she was just a spectator. She couldn't remember the last time something had been so interesting to her. Being immortal has its benefits, but it also has its downsides. One of them being the boredom. After living for so long, it was hard to find things entertaining any more. That's why she was so interested in following the life of this boy that seemed so unique to her.

After months of observing his life, she actually begun to feel emotion. Not a lot of emotion, but enough for her to register that she had felt something. It had been hundreds of years since she remembered actually feeling any kind of emotion, yet somehow watching this boy had made her feel something.

What that something that she felt was, she did not know. It could have been admiration at his seemingly endless determination and passion. It could have been pity at the fact that his life was surrounded by so much tragedy and death. Or it could have simply been gratitude that he had somehow managed to entertain her for so long, even if he didn't know it.

She had to admit to herself that he was becoming an extremely powerful individual. In the time that she observed his life, he went from an above average sword wielding villager, to an extremely powerful warrior with some kind of weapon that reminded her of something called a sacred gear from another world that she observed occasionally.

She almost felt sad when his life ended. The boy gave his life to save a city that had bought nothing to him but pain. Weeks prior to his death the very people he saved had been cheering in a stadium waiting for his execution. Yet after everything this place had done to him, he still gave his life to save them. She couldn't decide if she was sad that he didn't survive the fight to see the victory he helped to achieve, or if she was just sad that she could no longer find entertainment in spectating his life.

Making a split second decision, she decided to intervene and save the boy. Although he technically still died, she managed to save his body and soul, forcing them back together so that he'd eventually wake up. As his name suggested, he had so much hidden potential and she could see that as clear as day. His life was so short and he didn't even get to enjoy the time that he had. He lived and died for other people and didn't even get to see the new world he helped create.

That is why she decided to save the boy and give him another chance at life. Maybe he could continue to entertain her, if not, healing his body and waiting for him to wake up had at least given her something to do for however long he had been unconscious for.

* * *

Tatsumi's eyes flickered a few times before they finally opened. His eyelids slowly separated to show bright green eyes. He blinked a few times when he realized that he was conscious. The last thing he remembered was being practically crushed to death and collapsing into Akame's arms.

He turned his neck to the side so that he could attempt to figure out where he was. To his shock, he seemed to be floating in some kind of void. The void looked to be never ending in every direction. As his eyes grew more focused he could make out mixtures of iridescent colours, swirling around each other, the view reminded him of looking through a kaleidoscope.

 _What is this place? I died… Is this some kind of afterlife?_ He wondered in confusion. He turned his head to the other side to see if he could see anything that might hint at where the hell he was. To his surprise though, when he turned his head he was greeted by a young girl with black hair and gray eyes looking down at him. She was sitting, well floating, next to him with her legs crossed and her hands in her lap. There was no expression on her face and she was simply watching him with her head tilted to the side.

"H-Hello?" His voice croaked as he spoke for the first time in god knows how long.

"Hello." She replied simply with no hint of emotion in her voice.

"Where am I? I-Is this some kind of afterlife?" He asked the young black haired girl floating next to him.

"You are in my home." She answered simply.

He looked around again and thought to himself that it was a rather odd place for such a young looking girl to live.

"I-I died. Didn't I?" He asked sadly.

She seemed to pause for a moment, thinking how to respond before answering. "Yes, you died."

"If I died and this isn't the afterlife, than how am I here?" He wondered out loud, his confusion growing even more.

"I watched you die and decided to salvage what I could of your body and your soul. Due to the way you died, and the amount of injuries you received in your final moments, it took some time for me to heal you to the point that you could regain consciousness." She answered in a calm tone.

Silence followed as Tatsumi took in the information before his eyes widened and he realized something.

"W-What happened to everyone else?! Did Night Raid and the revolution army put an end to the corruption?!" He asked in a desperate voice.

Instead of verbally answering his questions, the girl simply placed her palm on his forehead. His head shot back and his eyes closed due to the dizziness he was feeling. In his mind he saw images flashing through his head. They showed Akame defeating Esdeath and Najenda leading the revolution to victory. He felt a smile creep onto his face that his death wasn't in vain. The smile was quickly replaced with a frown though when he realized that out of everyone that he met along the way, it seemed that only Najenda and Akame survived until the very end.

"Akame…" He whispered to himself as his opened his eyes to find them slightly damp. He was beyond glad that she managed to make it through alive, but he wasn't sure if he could ever forgive himself for breaking the promise that he made to her.

He snapped out of his thoughts when he felt the girl remove her hand from his forehead.

"Who are you?" He asked her.

"I have been known by many names and many faces. For now, you can call me Ophis." She answered in the same emotionless tone that seemed to suit her.

"Alright... Ophis." He paused as he thought about the girl's strange name before continuing, "Why did you save my life, or bring me back to life, or whatever."

"You intrigued me." She responded, for a split second he thought he saw her lips twitch up but dismissed the thought as more questions came to mind.

"You said this place is your home… It doesn't look like any place I've ever seen before. Where are we?"

"I call this home; others have been known to call it the Dimensional Gap." She responded in her monotone voice.

"Dimensional Gap?" He asked, not sure what she meant by those words.

"We are in the gap that exists between worlds. This void is what connects worlds and makes it possible for those with the ability, to travel throughout the different worlds. This is my birthplace and current home." He followed along with her explanation before more questions came to his mind.

"Are there any other people in this, 'Dimensional Gap'?" He asked.

"No."

"So you're alone here?"

"Excluding you, yes."

Tatsumi frowned at her answer. Such a large and empty place to only be occupied by one person, it would drive him crazy if he was in such a strange place with no one to at least keep him company.

"Don't you get lonely?" He asked her slightly concerned for the young looking girl.

"No, I like the solitude. I find it… Peaceful." She responded and he could tell by the look in her eyes that she was being honest.

They spent the next few minutes in silence as they just looked at each other. When he realized that Ophis wasn't going to say anything any time soon he decided to ask the one question that had him more curious than all of the others.

"What happens to me now?"

"I have used a great deal of my power to heal you and keep the void from destroying your body. When you leave this place I will need to leave as well to regain my energy. Unfortunately when I leave I won't be able to maintain the barrier that keeps others from entering my home. This will no doubt lead to an _intruder_ taking over this place." She said in a slightly annoyed tone, showing emotion for the first time since they'd started talking to each other.

Tatsumi waited patiently for Ophis to continue, figuring that she'd eventually answer his question.

"I will take you to a new world where I will leave you to begin a new life. You will keep your mind, body and memories. There is one condition to this offer though." She spoke, returning to her monotone voice.

"Condition?" He asked curiously. She had saved his life so he didn't see himself being able to refuse whatever she wanted from him.

"If I ever need your help with anything, you must assist me. You will be free and live whatever kind of life you want, but you must remain loyal to me above all others." She stated calmly.

They floated in silence for a few more minutes. During this time Tatsumi thought about what she had said and she simply stared at him.

"You've given me the chance at a second life; I don't think it would be fair of me to deny your request." He paused again and his lips turned up into a grateful smile. "You have my eternal gratitude and loyalty."

"Very well. Are you ready to begin your new life?" She asked.

"Before we go, Can I ask you for one favour." He replied hesitantly.

"What would you like to ask?"

* * *

 **The next day.**

Tatsumi woke up to the sun shining through the window and onto his face. After waking up in the Dimensional Gap and talking with Ophis for a while, she bought him to this place. She told him last night that this was his new home. It was a simple apartment in a tall building on the outskirts of a city.

He was grateful for everything that she was doing for him, he truly was. She had given him another chance to live his life. On top of that she set him up with a nice place to live. The two bedroom apartment was a decent size. His room was spacious and had an on suit bathroom with a balcony looking over the city.

He hadn't checked out the other room yet but there wasn't much point in doing that for the time being. Along with the on suit bathroom, there was another, bigger bathroom down the hallway from the two bedrooms. The kitchen was well furbished with all different kinds of appliances and the pantry was filled with different kinds of foods. The lounge area was large and comfortable. All in all, it was a very nice place to live. Not as nice as the Night Raid base, but it would do the job for now.

Tatsumi stretched his body out and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He sat up got out of the bed, moving towards the on suit bathroom. He stripped and walked into the large shower before turning on the taps. At first the water was cold but after a few moments he was leaning against the wall as hot water was streaming down his body and falling to the floor.

For the next fifteen minutes Tatsumi simply leant against the wall of the shower and reminisced about his past life. He thought about all of the good and all of the bad. All of the friends he made and sadly, all of the friends he lost along the way. It was hard to tell if the drops falling from his face came from the shower head above him or from his own tear ducts.

After finishing in the shower he moved back to his room to get dressed. When he was dressed he took to the mirror to see how he looked in these new clothes. He wore a black blazer with white accents over a white, long sleeved button down shirt with vertical linings. There was a black ribbon on the collar of his shirt to match the black dress pants and the look was completed with a clean pair of brown dress shoes.

Satisfied that he looked okay, he got some food out of the pantry, put it into a backpack with some books and made his way out of the apartment. When he made it outside onto the path, he pulled a map out of his bag. Opening up the map he found where he was and then drew a line for the most direct route to his destination.

It wasn't too far away, but he figured it would probably be around a half hour walk. After memorizing the route he had to take, he folded the map up and put it into his pocket. He took a deep breath before he started walking towards the beginning of his new life.

Next stop, Kuoh Academy.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Well that brings us to the end of the very first chapter of this story. I hope you enjoyed reading it and I am excited to see where this story goes. I am by no means an accomplished writer; I simply enjoy writing every now and then whenever I feel motivated and inspired.

I am a university student with many commitments so I can't promise when updates will occur, just know that they will come as often as possible.

If there are any grammatical errors, I apologize, and will do my best to make sure I fix them all.

All questions are welcomed and feedback is appreciated so feel free to PM me or just leave a review.

Until next time!


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:** I'd like to thank those of you who took the time to favourite/follow and review so far. Any form of support adds to my motivation, so thanks! :)

In response to some people who are concerned that this story will follow along with most clichés and become boring: I understand where you'er coming from and because of this I have adjusted the summary to hopefully help a bit. The story will be following the timeline of DxD so most of the major events will be shown through Tatsumi's perspective. BUT I plan on changing things up quite a bit so that it's not just original DxD with a new main character. That being said I am planning to include original arcs as well which will contain aspects from both universes.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own the rights to Highschool DxD, Akame ga Kill! or any of the other manga/animes that might find their way into this story.

* * *

A month has passed since Tatsumi first arrived in Kuoh and started attending Kuoh Academy. During this time he settled in rather easily. Getting used to life in this new world wasn't as hard as he thought it would be.

He thought that classes would be difficult to understand seeing as he was raised in a different world but thanks to a little gift from Ophis, he was breezing through his classes with relative ease. She repeated the process that she did when she showed him the images of his world after he died. This time however she used the technique to gift him with the knowledge that he would need to live in this place.

This helped him out tremendously. Not only did it put him towards the top of all of his classes, but it also helped him understand smaller things that most people took for granted. Things like televisions, computers and cars. There was nothing like this where he was from so he probably would have freaked out if she didn't transfer her knowledge of this world to him.

Thanks to the gifted knowledge it made classes easier for him than most people. But he still enjoyed learning about all kinds of different things. After the first month of attending Kuoh Academy, he decided that his favourite class was history and his least favourite class was mathematics. He enjoyed physical education as well, but that class had some… annoying drawbacks.

When he first had P.E class they were all out on the sports field warming up and getting ready to play sports. Apparently on that day, all the boys were expected to participate in the sports, while the girls did track running. Because the class was quite large they took it in turns by gender to see who did what during which class.

Anyway back to the main point. So it was the day that all the boys in the class were playing sports, and today's sport of choice was soccer. They did basic drills and warm ups so that they could all get a feel for the ball. After fifteen minutes of this, the teacher split the group into two teams and stated that the teams would be distinguished by 'shirts vs skins.'

Tatsumi was on the skins team meaning he was expected to take his shirt off with the rest of his team, so that they'd know who was on their side and who was not. He didn't really have a problem with this because he was rather comfortable with his body. He was lean, toned and thanks to all of the training he did with Night Raid, he was quite muscular. Not over the top like you see with some heavy weight body builders. Instead Tatsumi was well defined with a strong body and rock hard abs.

When he took his shirt off to start participating in the class activity, he noticed that most of the other boys in the class were staring at him with annoyed, jealous and even some _impressed_ expressions. Three boys in particular, that he later learnt were known as the perverted trio, were practically glaring daggers at him. Shrugging it off Tatsumi heard giggling from some distance behind him and when he turned around he discovered that most of the girls in the class that were supposed to by track running, had stopped and were all staring at him. The girls all had flushed cheeks and lust filled eyes, some even had phones in their hands and were taking photos of his half naked body.

At the time Tatsumi didn't really think much of it and just ignored them while he played soccer with the rest of the boys in the class. By the end of the game he scored three goals and his team won four to zero. The only other person on his team to score a goal was a boy of similar height to Tatsumi with messy brown hair. He scored their final goal when Tatsumi crossed the ball into the box from near the side line. The boy, whose name he found out later was Issei Hyoudou, tripped over his feet and face planted. On his way down the ball bounced off his head and somehow managed to pass the goal keeper.

Ever since that day, Tatsumi's popularity sky rocketed with the ladies of the academy, while it went down dramatic with the males. It didn't really bother him all that much but sometimes it got a bit overwhelming. He was quite an introverted person after everything he's been through and was still having trouble coming to terms with the deaths of most of the friends he made in his previous life. On top of that he had trouble sleeping most nights because he kept having various nightmares which would remind him of just how much he had lost.

While sometimes it was nice to be fawned over by attractive girls, there were times he needed his space. That's what led him to joining the Kendo club. While the club was completely made up of girls, they weren't as bad as some of the others in the academy. They blushed a lot when he talked to them and he often caught them looking at him when they thought he wasn't watching. But for the most part they respected his boundaries and didn't impose on his need for personal space.

Tatsumi's last class had just finished for the day and he was heading to meet up with the girls in the Kendo club. Murayama asked him earlier that day if he wanted to go out with them all after club practice to get some dinner and socialize for a while. He couldn't make it to the club practice because he had class while they had a free period, but he agreed to go with them to hang out for a while.

He was slightly regretting his decision though. The previous night he had an extremely emotional nightmare that brought back some horrifying memories. Memories of the night that he found his close friends Sayo and Ieyasu murdered. He didn't get much sleep after that and spent the entire day reliving the memory in his head.

He didn't show it to anyone, but he was extremely depressed right now and he just wanted to go home and try to get a decent night's sleep. But he had promised Murayama that he'd join the girls for a while so he decided to suck it up and suppress the emotions.

Tatsumi was walking towards the Kendo club to meet them when he rounded the corner and felt someone bump into him. Reacting on instinct he reached out and caught the arm of the person who was falling backwards away from him. Stopping the person from falling to the ground he took in her appearance.

The girl standing in front of him was a beautiful girl with light skin and blue-green eyes. She had a rather buxom figure with long legs and a generous chest, but the thing he noticed above everything else was her hair. The girl had beautiful long crimson hair that reached down to her thighs, with a single strand sticking out the top. She had loose bangs covering her forehead and side bangs framing her pretty face.

She was wearing the standard Kuoh Academy girl's uniform which consisted of a white long sleeved button down shirt with a black ribbon on her collar. She wore a black shoulder cape and a matching button down corset. Her skirt was magenta with white accents and she wore brown dress shoes with white crew length socks.

Tatsumi knew this girl as Rias Gremory, one of the 'two great ladies' of Kuoh Academy. Considered to be the most popular and most beautiful girl in the school. She was practically treated like royalty and held the respect and admiration of every student at the academy.

Well that was all according to the information he'd overheard those idiotic perverts discussing during class a few weeks ago. He had to admit though, she was rather beautiful. Once she steadied herself she looked up at him with a small smile on her face.

"Sorry Senpai, I didn't see you there." He apologized sincerely, although the smile on his face was forced.

Before she could even reply, he let go of her arm and he was walking down the corridor away from her again. She watched him walk away with a concerned expression on her face, before she turned around and continued on her way with her usual friendly smile.

* * *

"Murayama's jugs, they're freaking huge!"

"36, 22, 34!"

"And Katase's legs are crazy sexy!"

"34, 22, 36!"

"I found this yesterday! I call it the tit whole!"

"Good job Matsuda!"

Two students whose voices were could be heard _admiring_ the bodies of the female kendo club, currently had their eyes glued to a small hole on the outside of one of the school buildings. Through the whole, the members of the kendo club could be seen changing their clothes.

Matsuda and Motohama, two second year students, also members of the infamous perverted trio were writhing with excitement at what they were seeing. The third member of the perverted trio was Issei Hyoudou, and he was currently trying to pull his friends away from the 'peep whole' so that he could get a good look in.

"Come on guys! It's my turn to appreciate their beautiful naked bodies!" Issei said with a bit too much enthusiasm to call normal.

"Yeah guys it's Issei's turn, move over." A calm voice came from behind them.

"You're damn right it's… my… turn." Upon recognizing the voice Issei and the other two boys turned around to see a blank faced Tatsumi standing behind them.

"E-Enemy of all men!" Motohama shouted while pointing a shaky finger up at Tatsumi.

Tatsumi simply chuckled at this. Ever since the P.E incident, these three had been declaring him as an enemy to all men. They were saying that, it was because of him that the girls in Kuoh Academy would never go on dates with them. He found it amusing because of the fact that during the entire month that he'd been there, Tatsumi had only been on a few dates and only with one girl. That girl being Murayama. How that made him the enemy of all men he didn't know, but he still found it amusing that these three were so far deep in denial about the real reasons that they could never get any dates.

"Well well, what a surprise." A new voice came from beside the three perverts who were now all sitting on the ground. They turned around in fear to see that the voice came from Murayama herself. They started sweating dramatically when they saw that the rest of the kendo club was behind her, all holding their bokken in their hands.

"This is the third time this month that we've caught you pervs peeping on us! Looks like the punishment last time wasn't enough." Katase growled as the started clapping the bokken against her hand in a threatening manner.

"H-He was peeping too!" Issei shouted nervously while pointing at Tatsumi who was still just standing a few meters away from them observing the scene.

"Tatsumi-kun?!" Murayama said in shock, only just now realizing that he was there. "Were you really peeping on us while we were getting changed?" She asked disbelievingly.

Tatsumi chuckled as a smile crept onto his face. "Murayama-chan, do you really think that I would stoop so low?" He asked in a mock hurt voice. "Besides you girls change in front of me all the time after kendo practice so why would I need to peep with these three idiots." He finished with another chuckle as he saw the three idiots he was referring to laying on their backs crying.

"They get changed in front of him?!" Matsuda cried out.

"And they just let him watch?" Issei asked no one in particular as tears continued to stream down his face.

The female kendo club members looked at the boys on the ground with disgust before looking back up at Tatsumi. As soon as their eyes met his bright smiling face, all of their faces flushed a bright red color.

"Of course I don't think you were peeping on us Tatsumi-kun. As you said, there wouldn't be much point. Besides, I-If you wanted to see anything outside of practice all you'd have to do is ask." Murayama said shyly with blushing cheeks as the wrapped her arms around his arm and started leading him away with the other girls.

Upon hearing Murayama's final statement the three boys lying on the ground all cried out in pain and jealousy.

* * *

Rias Gremory was sitting on a couch in the Occult Research Club's clubroom. Behind her was another young woman with a buxom figure. She looked to be around the same age as Rias with very long black hair and violet eyes. Her hair was tied in a long ponytail, reaching all the way down her legs with two strands sticking out from the top and sloping backwards. She wore an identical uniform to Rias except for the orange ribbon keeping her hair in place, and instead of the white crew length socks Rias wore, this girl was wearing knee length black socks.

Her name is Akeno Himejima.

Also known as the other half of Kuoh Academy's 'two great ladies.' Akeno is known as the second most popular and second most beautiful girl in the entire academy. She is also the vice president of the Occult Research Club.

"Check mate." Rias said as she mover her pawn to threaten Akeno's king on the chess board in front of her.

"Ohh, Sorry. I did my best to make it harder on you." Akeno responded in a disappointed voice as she looked over the chess board.

"Thanks." Rias laughed as she got up from the couch and moved towards the side of the room. She started taking her clothes off while continuing to talk. "What can you tell me about that boy we suspect is in possession of a sacred gear?" By the time she finished answering the question, she was completely naked and standing on the other side of a curtain. Moments later, running water could be heard to indicate that there was a shower behind the curtain.

Akeno sat down on the couch, seemingly unphased that her friend just stripped in front of her and got into a shower. "Well he's in class 2B, and if I remember correctly, his name is Issei Hyoudou." A few moments passed and there was no response, so Akeno continued. "Why do you ask Buchou?"

"Koneko-chan has informed me that a fallen angel, taking the form of a teenage female, has made advancements toward him. If that is true then it means whatever his sacred gear may be, it must be powerful." She answered from behind the curtain.

"What do you think we should do?" Akeno asked.

"We need to make our preparations as soon as possible, after that, everything depends on him." Rias answered as she turned the taps off and reached past the curtain for a towel. "What about the other boy I asked you to look into."

"In the short amount of time I've had since you bumped into him earlier today I haven't been able to find out much. His name is Tatsumi. There was no family name on his school records. He transferred here around a month ago and just like Issei-san, he is in class 2B." She informed her crimson haired friend.

"Thank you Akeno." Rias replied while putting her clothes back on now that she'd finished drying off from her shower.

"Why the sudden interest in Tatsumi-san?" Akeno asked. "I must admit that he is rather cute, but I can't sense a sacred gear or anything out of the ordinary power wise."

Rias paused for a moment to collect her thoughts before answering. "When we bumped into each other earlier today, his smile was so forced. It wasn't obvious but I could tell that it wasn't genuine. Also his eyes were so empty. It was as if they held no emotion at all, that or there were simply too many emotions to distinguish between… There was something else in his expression too. It was as if he was trying to hide a hardened expression, one that has seen so much loss and tragedy. The other time I've seen an expression similar to that was when my family told me all about the Great War." She finished with a frown on her face.

"What are you trying to say?" Akeno asked curiously.

"What I'm trying to say is that I think there is more to Tatsumi-san than meets the eye. I don't think that he's just another normal teenage student. I think that there is a lot more to it than that and it's a mystery that I'd like to solve." She answered with determination in her voice.

"Ara ara, I haven't seen you this passionate in a while Buchou." Akeno giggled into her hand. "Are you sure that you don't just have a crush?" She teased.

"Very funny Akeno." Rias glared at her before leaving the room.

* * *

Tatsumi was walking home after hanging out with the kendo club members for most of the afternoon. They went out to a family restaurant where they ate dinner and socialized for a few hours. Despite not being in the best of moods due to his lack of sleep, Tatsumi actually found himself having a pretty good time. He like hanging out with the girls and they were a pretty good distraction from his thoughts.

Murayama was a bit more flirtatious with him than usual but he didn't mind. She is one of the only people that he actually considers to be a friend in Kuoh. He wasn't really all that interested in a relationship at the moment but he didn't mind the casual flirtation. He even flirted back a bit sometimes. He thought she was kind and funny. Not to mention beautiful. She wasn't on the 'Kuoh's great ladies list,' but that didn't make her unattractive by any means. She was good company and a good friend, so he didn't mind if she wanted to flirt with him.

That being said he didn't want to lead her on either. Sure he liked her, but he didn't know if he liked her like that. It was hard to figure out when he was still trying to get over all of the people in his previous life… Some more than others…

That's why he'd agreed to go out on a couple dates with her over the past month. To see if the feelings developed into anything more substantial. Unfortunately he was still confused about his feelings. Was he attracted to her? Yes. Did he like spending time with her? Yes. Did he have feelings for her? Kind of. Were those feelings enough for him to want a proper relationship? Not quite sure.

While he was pondering on his thoughts, he didn't even realize that he was wondering through a park. He was brought back to reality when he heard voices ahead of him. He wasn't sure why, call it instinct or something, but he darted off the path and hid behind a tree to observe what was happening near the fountain ahead of him.

Standing down the path, facing the fountain, was the very same pervert that he had caught peeping on the kendo club earlier that day. Issei Hyoudou. Standing closer to the fountain and facing him was a cute girl with strait black hair reaching down to her lower back. She was wearing a pink top with a black skirt and had a red scrunchy bracelet on her wrist.

Tatsumi was about to leave his cover and continue on his way home when he heard them start talking. He was some distance away from them, but he could still barely make out their words.

"Can I ask you a question? In honor of our first date there's something I'd like you to do, to commemorate this special moment." She asked him in a sweet voice.

Issei seem taken aback by her words but an eager smile came across his face. "S-Sure. You can ask me for anything at all."

The girl moved closer to Issei putting her face past his neck so that he couldn't see her expression any more. However from where he was, Tatsumi could still see her face plain as day, and he was shocked at what he saw. The cute girl's expression went from a sweet and innocent smile to a very dark and sinister grin.

"Hmm… Would you… Die for me?" She asked in an icy tone.

Issei took a nervous step back and asked. "Huh? What did you say? Something must be wrong with my ears haha. I don't think I heard you correctly. Could you maybe say that one more time please?" He finished with a nervous chuckle.

The girl took a few steps back from him and repeated herself. "I want you to… Die for me."

Issei froze in shock as he watched his date jump into the air. Her clothes shredded to pieces and her naked body was revealed.

"Oppai!" Issei shouted pointing at her making Tatsumi face palm.

She seemed to grow taller, her body became more mature and her eyes took on a darker, more evil look. Out of nowhere a new outfit seemed to appear, instead of the pink top and black skirt the girl turned woman was now wearing a black strap like bra which barely covered her nipples, leaving the rest of her breasts for the world to see. She was also now wearing a black thong that only just covered the important parts. She had black gloves trailing up her arms and black shoulder guards with three spikes on each shoulder. The most notable difference though were the two large, black feathered wings coming out of her back.

With the transformation seemingly completed, Issei continued to just stand there, frozen in shock.

"Well I have to admit, I did have some fun today. Considering how naïve and childish you are things could have been much, much worse." She snickered as she raised her arm up to show off the red scrunchy bracelet on her wrist. "Thanks a lot for the gift too, it was very sweet of you. But even so…"

As she stopped talking, she raised her hand out in front of her and conjured a pink spear like object that seemed to be made from pure light.

"Y-Yuma wait, please…" Issei pleaded.

"It's time to die." She interrupted as she threw the spear directly at the still frozen Issei.

He barely had time to react as he saw his life flashing before his eyes. There was no way that he could move out of the way in time. Yet somehow he fell to the ground and the spear whistled through the air passed him.

Wait a minute, he didn't fall, he was pushed.

"What the…?" Issed wondered out loud as he looked up to see the back of the figure who had just saved his life.

"Leave this place now. Nobody needs to get hurt tonight." Tatsumi said in a cold voice.

The woman he now knew as Yuma glared at him from her position above the fountain before conjuring another spear of pink light.

"Who do you think you are? Interrupting my business like this." She hissed.

"It doesn't matter who I am. What matters is that you were trying to kill this guy for some reason. The reason doesn't matter to me but I can't just stand by and as watch someone gets murdered in cold blood." Tatsumi answered in a calm voice.

"It is unfortunate that you stumbled upon this exchange. It seems that you will have to die now as well." She snickered darkly before raising the spear behind her head. She threw it directly at Tatsumi's chest with a smirk.

Her eyes narrowed slightly when he dodged the fatal attack simply by leaning to the left. She conjured two more spears and threw them at him. Again Tatsumi dodge them with ease by leaning to the right and then jumping to the left.

The woman floating above him growled in annoyance, but her expression quickly changed to an entertained one. "As a reward for still being alive I shall allow you to know the true name of the person who will end your life. My name is Raynare." She said simply with a sinister smile growing on her face.

Tatsumi didn't bother responding so she just conjured another pink spear and threw it directly at him. Easily jumping out of the way he looked to her with a smile. "You missed again… Raynare."

Her response caught him off guard. Instead of conjuring more spears or even growling in anger like before, she simply laughed at him like an idiot.

"Are you sure that I missed?" She asked with an evil laugh.

Tatsumi's eyes widened in realization and he turned to see what she was referring too. Issei had still been on the ground behind him when she threw the last spear. In dodging the attack he had allowed it to go straight at Issei, puncturing his gut. Tatsumi watched as the spear disappeared and blood started gushing from Issei's wound.

"You lose."

Those were the words Tatsumi heard from directly behind him. He looked down when he felt a strange feeling in his chest. His eyes widened even further when he saw the pink spear of light puncturing the centre of his chest. His clothes were quickly becoming stained with blood and he fell backwards when he felt the spear being ripped out of his body.

 _Aniki would kick my ass for losing focus like this..._

He collapsed onto his back, unable to move. He heard footsteps approaching where he knew Issei lay dying in a pool of his own blood. The footsteps stopped and he heard that voice again.

"I'm sorry, but the fact is you were far too great a risk to us. I had no choice but to dispose of you. If you're looking for someone to blame, why not blame _him_. He gave you the sacred gear after all." Raynare said in her cold tone before her voice regained its innocence. "Oh and thanks for the lovely date, it was fun." She finished with a giggle and her wings flapped sending her high into the air, disappearing into the night.

As Tatsumi laid in the dark park, surrounded by a pool of his own blood, with a gaping hole through his chest, he couldn't help but chuckle to himself cynically. It had literally been a month since he died and was saved by Ophis, who gave him a second chance. A single month was all it took, and he was back in that same situation. Although the conditions were different, he was still about to die for the sake of somebody else. He had tried to save Issei's life and in return both of them were now drawing their last breaths.

He thought about Sayo and Ieyasu, the childhood friends he lost to the evils of his previous world. He thought about Bulat, the brother he never had, who gave his life fighting for his. He thought about Chelsea, Leone, Lubbock, Shelle and Susanoo, the friends he couldn't save. His breathing hitched as he thought about Mine… The girl that died moments after professing her love for him. He wondered how Najenda was going now that the corruption had been dealt with. Finally he thought about Akame. The girl he promised that he would survive alongside her. The girl whose promise he broke when he died in her very arms. His fists clenched in rage thinking back to all of the death and trajedy.

Tatsumi coughed up blood and was drawing his last breath when he saw a bright red light in the corner of his eyes. His vision was blurred and he was slowly losing consciousness. He could barely hear soft words being spoken as his life was slipping away… again.

"Since death is upon you, I will gladly take you in." Spoke a feminine voice. "From this moment forward, you will live your life for my sake."

The last thing Tatsumi saw before completely losing consciousness was familiar crimson hair.

 _'Beautiful, long, crimson… red… hair.'_

Those were his final thoughts, and that was the last image he saw before everything turned to black.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Well that bring us to the end of chapter 2! I hope you enjoyed it!

I randomly got the idea of making Murayama more of an active character in this story and thought I'd use a bit of this chapter to see how she'd go with a bit more of the spotlight. Let me know if you like Murayama as a character and want her to play a more active role in this story.

I know some of you may have wanted Tatsumi to stay human, but I just feel like it would be a lot easier to write him as a devil. If he were to stay human he would be left out of most of the major events and wouldn't have as much of an impact in most of the arcs. Don't worry though, he isn't just going to be another ordinary devil!

Also I've been thinking a lot about what other characters I want to integrate to the DxD universe from AgK. Thoughts?

If there are any grammatical errors, I apologize, and will do my best to make sure I fix them all.

All questions are welcomed and feedback is appreciated so feel free to PM me or just leave a review.

Until next time!


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note:** Some people have concerns about Tatsumi losing to Raynare so easily. You need to realise that Tatsumi has been living completely peacefully for the last month. He was completely unaware that there were Devils, Angels and Fallen Angels in this new world, so when he saw Raynare he was caught of guard. Also, after seeing so much tragedy in his previous life, then adjusting to mundane everyday life, seeing Issei be murdered right in front of him caused a lot of shock. That moment of shock was all it took for Raynare to get to him.

Just know that he is not weak. He may have appeared week, but that's just because he was caught by surprise.

 **(BTW Story summary has been altered)**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own the rights to Highschool DxD, Akame ga Kill! or any of the other manga/animes that might find their way into this story.

* * *

Tatsumi was running through a forest as fast as he could. Desperation was evident on his face as he picked up the pace. All he could think about was getting as far away as possible, getting to safety. He had to keep running. He couldn't stop even if he wanted to.

So he ran and he ran and he ran. His body was on the brink of exhaustion and he felt like he was about to pass out, but he willed himself to press on. The entire world around him faded into a mix of colours.

His focus was broken by the voice of the girl he was carrying. Held in his arms bridal style, close to his chest, was a young girl a bit shorter than he was. She had very long pink hair tied in twin tails going down either side of her head. Her eyes were barely open but as they blinked slowly, her bright pink eyes were revealed. She was wearing a pink outfit that was in tatters, evidently from the battle they had just been in.

"Just put me down…" The low voice came from the pink haired girl in his arms.

He looked down at her hesitantly, but the small smile on her face meant that he couldn't deny her request. After running for a few more minutes they came across a small stream with a small clearing surrounded by trees next to it. He stopped under the shade of some of the trees and softly placed the injured girl down on the ground.

The girl was obviously in pain, he could see it in her eyes, but she was putting on a brave face and trying to play it off like it was nothing. She raised her hand slowly toward his face while struggling to speak.

"Tatsumi…" She whispered tenderly.

"I'm right here." He replied softly, taking her hand between his and giving a soft comforting squeeze.

"Y-You saved me in Kyoroch, so I was thinking I had to return the favour." She spoke, barely above a whisper.

"That's not…" He tried to interject but she cut him off before he could continue.

"We're even now right?" She asked with a warm smile on her face even though she was in so much pain.

Seeing her like this was killing Tatsumi on the inside, but he knew that he had to stay strong for her, and try to keep her smiling for as long as possible. "Yeah, so hold yourself together." He answered her, trying to sound as cheerful as possible.

Her response came after a painful chuckle. "Y-You're a fool… I can't heal like Leone."

These words seemed to break Tatsumi's resolve somewhat as he let out a pained sob and tears welled up in the corners of his eyes.

"I wanted to fight together till the end, but…"

"What are you saying?!" He asked her desperately, losing what little composure he had left. "W-We're still going to fight together…" He stated, more as an effort to reassure himself then the pink haired girl in his arms.

"You're a bad liar, Tatsumi." She said while tears slowly rolled down Tatsumi's cheeks. "Y-You're musy as usual." She finished with a teasing tone mixed in with the pain.

Tatsumi pulled her hand to his forehead to hide his face. "This can't… You idiot." He said with despair clear in his tone. "W-Why did you have to come save me?"

She seemingly ignored his question and placed her soft hand on his cheek. "Stop crying. You're a man, aren't you?" She said softly with a small smile on her lips. "Hey… I'm glad I fell in love with you."

Tatsumi held her hand to his cheek, trying to regain control over his emotions, but he just couldn't do it. He had been suppressing his emotions for too long, and they had broken. He couldn't simply push them down any further, certainly not in this kind of situation.

"Don't die." He begged her. "Don't you dare die! You're gonna stand on the winning side, aren't you?"

"What're you saying?" She asked softly as she slowly forced herself to sit up. "I'm already on the winning side."

"Mine…" He whispered, staring into her eyes, only to see happiness looking back at him.

"Tatsumi…" She whispered in reply and moved her hand from his cheek to the back of his head, gripping his hair gently between her fingers.

Staring into each other's eyes, they started to lean in towards each other. Time seemed to be in slow motion as their lips approached one another's. Mine tilted her head slightly closing her eyes now that they were just inches away. Tatsumi followed suit and closed his eyes, preparing himself for what was to come.

"Tatsumi…"

"…"

"Tatsumi… Wake up."

Tatsumi's eyes snapped open to find himself laying in the bed in his apartment. He was covered in a cold sweat and his hands were shaking. There were a few stray tears making their way down his cheeks and he was breathing heavily.

Realizing that it was just a dream, well… A dream in the form of a memory… He sat up slowly and raised his shaky hands to rub the sleep out of his eyes. While doing so he found his fingers becoming damp. Realizing that he had been crying he quickly raised the sheet to wipe his face. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, and when he felt he had regained enough composure, he looked up in search of the voice that had woken him.

It was still dark in his room, meaning that it was early morning, but for some reason he could see through the darkness rather easily. That being the case, he could tell exactly who it was sitting on the bed next to him. He could easily recognize the cute young girl's appearance. He could see long hair making its way down to her lower back and he could clearly make out the gray color in her point tipped eyes. Unlike the last time he saw her, she was now only wearing what he realized was one of his sweatshirts. The waist of the shirt went down to her thighs and he had to assume that she was only wearing panties under the shirt.

"Ophis…?" He asked in tired confusion. "What are you doing here?"

"Why were you crying?" She asked, completely ignoring his question. He was caught off guard by the concerned look in her eyes as she placed her delicate hand on his cheek and user her thumb to trace light circles.

"I-I was… having a bad dream…" He said sadly, looking down from her gaze.

"Would you like to talk about it?" She asked tenderly, sliding her fingers under his chin and lifting his eyes back up to meet her own.

Tatsumi didn't respond immediately. He was surprised by the caring look in her eyes and the concern evident in her voice. He had never seen the girl like this before. The last and only time that he'd spoken with her, she appeared to be so nonchalant and uninterested in everything. Her eyes were void of any emotion and her voice was completely monotone.

What he was witnessing now was the complete opposite of that. It was as if she was a completely new person. And he had to admit to himself, he liked this version of her a lot more. It made him sad the way she seemed so emotionless when he met her. She seemed so alone, but now she looked content.

Even after the dream… memory… somehow he found himself with a small smile on his face. "Thank you. I don't think I'm ready to talk about it, but you're offer really does mean a lot."

Her reply was a simple nod, and the concern in her eyes slowly dissipated as his own depressing expression changed into a more relaxed one. Taking a side glance at his clock he found that it was only five am in the morning, remembering that she didn't answer his originally question, he turned back to her and asked. "It's nice to see you again, but is there any particular reason you're hear Ophis?"

Her face took on a more serious expression upon hearing his words. "Do you remember what happened to you last night Tatsumi?"

* * *

Tatsumi was standing in his bathroom with a towel around his waist. After his early morning wakeup call from Ophis, he decided that he needed to have a shower to help him wake up before they talk any further. He is now standing in front of the mirror in his bathroom, staring at his reflection.

His fingers tracing the remains of a large scar in the middle of his chest. Looking down at the healed wound, memories flashed back into his mind. Memories of the previous night where he tried to save his classmate from the strange girl with black wings.

He shuddered when he pictured the spear piercing through his chest. He remembered looking down and seeing the pink spear of light slowly killing him before it was ripped out, increasing the pain tenfold. One thing he didn't remember however was having the strange tattoo on his chest.

Just above the scar on his chest was a newly appeared black tattoo of sorts. It was in the shape of an infinity symbol, and while it was fairly basic in design, upon closer inspection he noticed that the symbol took the shape of a black serpent wrapping around on itself.

He traced the symbol with his finger, trying to figure out how it got there. It wasn't there the previous morning when he got out of the shower, so he figured Ophis must have had something to do with it.

Wanting answers, Tatsumi removed his towel and got dressed into his Kuoh uniform, minus the blazer and shoes. Returning to his room he found Ophis still sitting on his bed with her legs crossed and her hands in her lap. She was still dressed in the same way and was simply waiting for his return.

The room was now dimly lit, with the sun beginning to come up over the horizon, stray beams of sunlight made their way through his blinds. When she noticed that he was now back from his shower, Ophis looked up at him and signaled for him to come and sit with her on the bed. Obliging, Tatsumi moved to sit on the bed, leaning his back against the head rest.

"How are you feeling Tatsumi?" She asked him with slight concern in her voice.

"Physically I feel fine… I don't understand how that's possible though, seeing as I'm fairly sure that I died last night… Again…" He answered dejectedly.

"You didn't die. You were on the brink of death when the red head saved you." She explained slowly.

Tatsumi blinked, remembering the appearance of crimson red hair in his final moments before losing consciousness. "Rias-senpai? What do you mean she saved me?"

"You were taking your last breaths when she arrived and she decided to make the most of the situation and try to resurrect you into her peerage." Ophis continued.

"Peerage?" Tatsumi asked, not familiar with the word.

"A peerage is the name given to a group of devils influenced by the Evil Piece system. This system uses the human game of chess to create servants for a high class devil. The King piece is given to the high class devil as the master of the peerage, and the rest of the pieces are used by the king to turn other beings into their servants." She explained slowly so that he could keep up.

"Devils…? You mean like, evil beings from the underworld that possess people and steal their souls?" He asked with confusion clear in his voice.

"Devils aren't actually like how their perceived to be by the majority of the human race. For the most part they don't steal peoples souls or do anything of the sort. They are simply beings driven by desire. They mostly reside in the underworld, with some living amongst humans. In comparison their way of living isn't all that different from humans." She decided that getting straight to the point with explaining things would be the best approach with Tatsumi. Given everything that he experienced in his previous life, the concept of supernatural beings really shouldn't come as that much of a surprise to him.

Just as she suspected, he didn't seem to be too shocked by everything she was telling him, it would be more accurate to say that he was confused. "Last night… That girl, Raynare, was she a devil?"

"No." Ophis answered simply. "She is a Fallen Angel. In this world there are three dominant races that stand above the rest. Devils, Angels and Fallen Angels. Each race is divided into its own faction. Angels are followers of the biblical god. They live in heaven and are separated from Fallen Angels by the color of their wings. Angels have white wings, and the more powerful they are, the more sets of wings they have. Fallen Angels are the same in this aspect except for the fact that they have black wings. Both races use light magic because it is extremely effect against devils."

"What about devils then?" He asked curiously.

"Devils are known for their black bat like wings. They are beings driven by desire and have a fatal weakness to pure light and holy artifacts. A long time ago there was a Great War between the three factions which resulted in a lot of death." As Ophis explained this Tatsumi's fists clenched. It seems that no matter what world he's in, there will always be senseless killing. "The war ended with multiple deaths of leaders from all three factions. Since then there has been a cease fire of sorts. I wouldn't call it peace, but it's an improvement from war… Due to lacking populations, the devils created a way to reincarnate beings from other races into devils. This is the purpose of the Evil Piece system."

Tatsumi sat in silence, taking in all of the information she was telling him. After explaining the basics Ophis moved closer to Tatsumi, placing her hand on his forehead. His eyes rolled back in his head after being flooded by her knowledge of the supernatural beings of this world. He took a few minutes to recover from the headache before regaining his composure.

"So does this mean that I'm a devil?" He asked, slightly put off by the thought of being someone's servant.

"Yes. When you were about to die, the red head used one of her pieces to save your life." She answered simply.

"Is that what this mark on my chest means?" He asked her, pulling the front of his shirt down to show the infinity tattoo.

"No. That symbol is my crest. I used it to tether your life force to mine when you were in the Gap. It made keeping you alive easier." She explained. "When you woke up it disappeared… But when you were resurrected into a devil, the mark returned… That's how I knew something was going on. So I came as soon as I could."

"What does it mean?" He asked the girl curiously.

She paused for a few moments trying to figure out how to best phrase her answer. "When I was healing you, I had to syphon some of my power into you, which is what created the tether. I assumed that once you woke up the tether would be broken… But it would appear that some of my power still resides inside of you."

Satisfied with her answer, Tatsumi slumped back against the headrest. Thinking back over their conversation and all of the knowledge about the supernatural races that she gifted to him, there was only one more question he needed to ask…

"So… Does this mean that I'm Rias-senpai's servant…?" He wandered out loud with a slight sigh. He had nothing against her personally, but he didn't really like the idea of being forced to follow someone because of a system. He preferred to follow those who earned his respect, not expected it.

"Not quite…" She paused, taking on a thinking expression. "I said that she _tried_ to resurrect you into her peerage…"

* * *

Later that day Tatsumi was leaving the classroom for the mid-day break. After The early morning with Ophis he was a bit tired, but the real cause of his distraction was the conversation, not the lack of sleep.

He decided that he needed a distraction from everything life was throwing at him, so he figured he'd go and see the one person who he knew could take his mind off things. On the way to the destination he noticed three students talking on the stairs. One of which students he had tried to save the previous night.

When Tatsumi saw them standing half way up the stairs he moved behind a wall at the bottom so that he could hear their conversation.

"Stop screwing with me guys… You seriously don't remember meeting Yuma?" He heard Issei ask the other two.

"Nah dude, name's not ringing any bells."

"I'll say it again, you never introduced us to a chick and it's imposing that you have a girlfriend."

Both of Issei's friends sounded genuine in their responses, which led Tatsumi to the assumption that the Fallen Angel somehow erased her existence from the memories of the other students. It made sense when he thought about it.

"But that doesn't make any sense, her phone number is right here…" Tatsumi peaked his head around the corner and saw Issei pulling his phone out of his pocket. He quickly got a depressed look on his face and put the phone back into his pocket dejectedly.

The three boys talking on the stairs all went quiet when the noticed someone walking down the stairs above them. Rias Gremory was gracefully descending the stair case with her head held high. When she passed the group, Tatsumi saw her give him a brief sideways glance in Issei's direction before continuing. Moving back around the corner, Tatsumi decided to see how she'd react to his presence.

When he heard her just about to turn the corner he stepped forward into her path. Just like the previous day, he felt her bump into him softly and stumble slightly before he caught her by putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Sorry- Oh Rias-senpai, twice in two days. I think we're having a bit of bad luck running into each other like this." Tatsumi said with a cheerful tone.

For a brief moment she looked surprised to see him, but she quickly hid that by replacing the look with her well known smile. "That's quite all right Tatsumi-san. It would seem that we both need to be more careful when walking through the corridors." She paused for a moment, looking at him with subtle suspicion before continuing. "My apologies, but I must excuse myself. I have club matters that need attending to." She finished politely. With one last smile she turned away from him and was on her way.

Today it was Tatsumi to watch as Rias walked away. He was a bit disappointed in her response. He could understand that she may be hesitant in talking to him. But to completely avoid him like that was a bit annoying to him.

While he was lost in thought, leaning against a wall, he didn't notice the person approaching him. Walking straight towards him was a girl slightly shorter than him. She had brown hair tied in a ponytail, held up by a red ribbon and reaching halfway down her back. She had loose bangs hanging over her forehead and longer bangs framing either side of her face reaching down to her chest. She was wearing the standard girls uniform and although she wasn't one of the 'two great ladies' of Kuoh, she was still extremely attractive.

"Tatsumi-kun!" Her voice called to him, bringing him away from his thoughts when she got close enough to nudge his arm playfully.

Turning his head to look at the girl he smiled when he realized just who it was. "Murayama-chan. Good afternoon! I was just on my way to find you." He said cheerfully.

"You were?" She smiled happily. "Did you need something?"

"No not really. I was just wondering if you wanted to have lunch together?" He asked making her smile widen even further.

"I'd love to!" She answered excitedly.

* * *

Tatsumi and Murayama were sitting on the hill connecting the school building to the sports fields. It was now late in the afternoon and the sun was slowly disappearing over the horizon. After eating lunch together and just relaxing, Tatsumi's mood improved significantly.

After lunch they had separate classes for the rest of the day, followed by kendo practice. The afternoon was uneventful with class being average and practice being the same as normal. He decided to wait for Murayama seeing that she was packing up the kendo clubs gear and didn't want her to have to walk home alone. When she finished packing up the equipment with the other girls she was happy to see him waiting for her.

Instead of them leaving straight away she decided to join him in sitting on the hill. There were some things that she wanted to discuss with him, and this was the perfect time to do so.

"Tatsumi-kun…" She said shyly to get his attention.

"Hmm?" He responded simply, turning to her with a warm smile.

"If you don't mind me asking... Why don't you date often? I mean, you get asked on dates all the time but you never seem interested. I was just wondering why that is?" She asked him nervously.

He was surprised by her question, and the smile fell from his face to be replaced by a solemn look. "I-I used to be close with someone. Really close… She told me that she loved me, and although I didn't tell her at the time, I realized later on that I loved her as well." He explained slowly.

Murayama had a sad look on her face and she was biting her lip softly. Tatsumi usually avoided talking about his past, so she didn't know a whole lot about his life before Kuoh, but she never would have thought that he had been in love with someone. "Y-You said that you _used_ to be close with someone …? What happened?"

Tatsumi didn't know how to answer her at first. He hadn't talked about his previous life with anyone since coming to Kuoh and he wasn't sure if he was ready to now. But for some reason he felt comfortable talking about it with Murayama.

"S-She's gone now…" He answered, deep sadness clear in his voice as he looked down from her gaze.

"Oh Tatsumi… I'm so sorry…" Murayama said tenderly, feeling guilty for bringing up such obviously painful memories.

Tatsumi looked up at her again and reached for her hand. She looked back at him slightly confused when he gave her hand a gentle squeeze and forced a slight smile onto his face. "Thank you… You're the first person that I've felt comfortable enough with to mention that to." He told her genuinely.

"…" Murayama was surprised and didn't know how to respond to that.

"You're friendship means a lot to me Murayama-chan. More than you know." Tatsumi said with a warm smile on his face. She blushed slightly at his declaration and froze when he leant forward, moving his face closer to hers. He placed a soft kiss on her cheek and moved away again. She was blushing furiously before the show of affection, but now her cheeks were the same shade as Rias' hair.

"Tatsumi-kun-" She began before being interrupted.

They were both broken away from their moment by the sound of someone letting out a cry of pain in their direction. Looking in the direction that the cry came from Murayama let out a low grown.

Issei was looking at the two with jealous tears streaming down his face. Behind him was another second year student. The other student was wearing the usual uniform minus the blazer, had short blonde hair and a mole under his left eye. Kiba Yuuto, also known as the 'prince of Kuoh Academy.'

Kiba gave Issei a strange look and then followed his line of sight to see Tatsumi and Murayama sitting rather close together on the hill ahead of them. Kiba gave a quiet chuckle and kept walking along the path towards the two. Issei, keeping the depressed look on his face, slowly followed the blonde prince.

"Hey guys." Kiba greeted politely with a wave.

Tatsumi gave a simple nod in reply.

"Good afternoon." Murayama said with a smile before it fell from her face to be replaced with a disgusted look. "What are you doing with the pervert? His disease might rub off on you if you let him get to close."

"I'm bringing him to the Occult Research Club room for Rias-buchou. He's our newest member." Kiba explained cheerfully.

Tatsumi's eyebrows rose slightly at this. ' _It would seem that Rias is wasting no time introducing Issei to her peerage…'_ He thought with slight annoyance.

"Good luck with that…" Murayama said with some concern for the academies prince. As Issei joined the group on the hill Murayama reached for Tatsumi's hand and pulled him up. "Anyway, we were just heading off. See you tomorrow!" She finished, offering a smile to Kiba and ignored Issei completely. With her farewell complete, she wasted no time in leading Tatsumi away from the prince and the pervert.

* * *

The sun finally fell out of view as Tatsumi and Murayama were walking away from Kuoh Academy. Because it was dark Tatsumi decided that he would walk her home, to which Murayama didn't seem to mind. They walked in a comfortable silence for twenty minutes. They were still holding hands which left a small smile on Tatsumi's face and a light blush on Murayama's cheeks.

Deciding to break the silence Murayama stopped walking and turned to Tatsumi.

"Tatsumi-kun, I-I want you to know that you're friendship is very important to me too." She said quietly with her eyes down. "Since meeting you and getting to know you better, I've been very happy."

He raised his hand to her chin, forcing her eyes back up to look at him. "I've been a lot happier since I met you too Murayama-chan." He told her genuinely with a warm smile.

"I know that we've only been on a few dates and I can understand that you are still getting over the loss of someone very important to you... I just think you deserve to know that… That I-I have feeling for you Tatsumi-kun." By the end of her confession her voice was barely above a whisper. "And I will wait as long as it takes until you are ready to move on. I-"

She was interrupted from her confession by his lips softly pressing against her own. Tatsumi's held her cheek in his hand while kissing her softly and tenderly. She was shocked at first but slowly started to return the kiss. Her arms wrapped around his neck and his hands rested on her waist. Time seemed to slow down as their lips danced against each other. He could feel her smile against his lips and was about to deepen the kiss when he felt a foreign presence approaching them.

He pulled away from their intimate moment, much to her displeasure and positioned himself between Murayama and the direction that he could feel someone approaching them from. Tatsumi's eyes were darting left and right, trying to find the source of the bad feeling he was getting. Meanwhile Murayama was observing him with a concerned expression.

"Tatsumi-kun? What's wr-" She began to ask before being interrupted.

"Well this really is unfortunate. Me running into you that is." Spoke an arrogant voice. The voice belonged to a figure covered by shadows that was walking towards them.

When the figure stepped into the light, it was revealed to be a middle aged looking man with short black hair and dark blue eyes. He was wearing a pale violet trench coat over a white dress shirt, black pants and a black fedora sitting atop his head.

"Who are you?" Murayama asked nervously from behind Tatsumi.

"Hmm, what a pity. I was just planning on killing this devil, but I suppose I'll have to get rid of any witnesses as well." His words made Murayama take a step back from a mix of confusion and fear.

"You have no business here, Fallen Angel." Tatsumi said calmly with narrowed eyes.

The fallen angel chuckled darkly before responding. "It appears that your friends and master are nowhere to be found. You show no signs of disappearing, nor are any magic circles being deployed. Therefore I will assume that you are nothing more than a stray, is that correct?" He asked arrogantly while conjuring a blue spear of light in his right hand. "And that would mean that killing you won't be a problem."

With his short speech finished the fallen angel hurled the spear straight at Tatsumi's chest. Learning from his mistake the previous night, he jumped backwards and put his arm around Murayama's waist before dashing to the side, away from the spear.

"Tatsumi-kun what's going on?!" Murayama asked in a frightened tone.

"Just stay behind me." Tatsumi told her before turning his gaze back to the fallen angel. "I will give you once chance to leave this place before I make you regret attacking us." He growled in a cold voice that surprised Murayama.

The fallen angel's response was to simply laugh condescendingly and flare his wings out from his back. "You have more courage than most of the strays I've come across. I can admire that but in the end it really doesn't matter. You will die here tonight either way. By the way. my name is Dohnaseek. It will be the last name you learn in this life. Now die!" He shouted, conjuring another spear and flying straight towards the two teenagers.

Seeing Dohnaseek charging towards them, Murayama stumbled backwards and fell to the ground. Tatsumi however stood perfectly still. When Dohnaseek was three meters away from him, a sword appeared in Tatsumi's hands. The broad sword was a metallic grey colour with black trimming around the blade. There was a red gem on the hilt and a short chain attached to the handle.

 _'It's been a while old friend.'_ He thought to himself. ' _I'm glad that Ophis left you with me this morning.'_

Tatsumi dashed straight towards Dohnaseek, catching him off guard. He raised his blade to block the spear of light and instead of simply blocking the blue spear, it completely shattered it. Following through with the momentum of his dash, Tatsumi slashed at the fallen angels arm, resulting in a deep cut just below the man's shoulder.

Dohnaseek jumped backwards clutching his arm in pain with wide eyes. "I couldn't sense a sacred gear within you! How could this be?" He demanded angrily.

"It's not a sacred gear." Was Tatsumi's simple response before he disappeared, making Dohnaseek's eyes widen even further.

Tatsumi appeared behind the fallen angel and with another slash, cut the man on his other arm, before disappearing again.

"What the-" Dohnaseek began to ask before he felt a pain in his gut. He looked down in shock to see that Tatsumi had reappeared in front of him. He cried out in pain as Tatsumi ripped the sword back out from his gut. Blood started gushing from the wound and he stumbled backwards. "H-How?"

Tatsumi ignored him as he fell to the ground. He lifted the blade up and then whipped it in a downwards arch, removing most of the blood from the sword. He released his grip on the handle, but instead of falling, the blade simply disappeared in the same way that it originally appeared.

He turned back towards Murayama to see her staring at him with wide eyes. He frowned to see her eyes showing so much fear and nervousness towards him. But he couldn't really blame her. Before he could even begin to explain what just happened , she fainted from shock at what she just witnessed.

Tatsumi sighed, ignoring the grunts of pain coming from the ground behind him. He walked over the Murayama's unconscious form and picked her up in his arms. He tensed the muscles in his back to bring out his wings and jumped high into the air, flying in the direction of his home.

It only took five minutes in the air, and before he knew it he was landing on the balcony to his apartment. He opened the sliding door and placed the unconscious girl in his arms down gently on his bed.

His fists clenched remembering the scared look on Murayama's face and he just hoped that she wouldn't freak out or change her opinion on him until he at least had the chance to explain things to her. He wanted to just sit on the end of the bed and wait for her to wake up, but there was something he had to do. He doubted that she'd wake up before he returned anyway. So with one more concerned look down at the brown haired girl on his bed, he moved back to the balcony and jumped back out into the night.

* * *

Rias and Akeno were once again in the Occult Research Club room. Although it was late at night they were still wearing their academy uniforms. They were sitting on the couches in the middle of the room opposite from each other and discussing the introduction of the newest addition of the young Gremory's peerage.

Being so late at night, they didn't expect any company, but were surprised by a knock at the door. "Come-" Before Rias could even finish inviting the person into the room, the doors slammed open to reveal an angry Tatsumi.

"Tatsumi-san...? What are you doing here?" Rias asked him cautiously, obviously recognizing his angry expression.

"Why shouldn't I be here?" He asked with a clearly annoyed voice. "You already introduced Issei to the rest of your peerage. Why shouldn't I come and greet my fellow devils." He snapped.

"I-" She tried to interject but froze under the intimidating glare he was sending her way.

"Oh I know. Maybe you resent me for the fact that somehow my body drained the power from your Evil Piece but failed to actually make me a member of your peerage. Or maybe you're just pissed off that you saved my life but got nothing in return except for a useless chess piece." He growled.

"How did you know that the piece failed to bind you to me?" She asked in confusion.

"It doesn't matter how I know!" He shouted, making her flinch. "What matters is the fact that you turned me into a devil and then didn't even talk to me about it because it didn't go how you planned. If a friend of mine didn't happen to explain things to me, I could have died tonight… Again!"

Rias was taken aback by his outburst and tried to say something but was cut off yet again by Tatsumi's rage filled voice.

"What makes it worse is the fact I probably would have followed you even though I'm not actually a member of your peerage… But you didn't even value me enough to consider that to be the case. Instead you just threw me aside and left me to be killed because the resurrection had an unexpected outcome." By the end of him venting his frustrations, he sounded more hurt than angry.

"Tatsumi…" Rias started, but he didn't even bother listening to her explanation. She missed her chance already, so he just turned around and left the room as fast as he entered it, slamming the doors closed behind him.

Rias and Akeno sat frozen in shock for a few minutes before the crimson haired girl sighed and lowered her face into her hands. "I really messed up didn't I Akeno?" She asked her queen with a dejected voice.

"Yes you did." Akeno admitted simply.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Rias mumbled with her face still buried in her hands.

"What did you expect to happen?" She asked before continuing hesitantly. "Everything Tatsumi-san just said to you was fair. You did try to make him a member of your peerage, and when it didn't go the way you planned, you basically hung him out to dry. We don't know exactly what happened tonight to set him off like that. But it's obvious that something did happen. We're just lucky that somehow he seems to know someone that did your job of explaining everything to him for you… As he said, if they hadn't explained things to him, there's a good chance that whatever happened tonight could have killed him."

They sat in silence while Rias thought about her queen's words. Akeno had warned her that something like this might happen. Yet she didn't listen and decided not to explain things to him because she didn't understand what had happened when she tried to bring him into her peerage.

"What do I do now, Akeno?" Rias asked sadly.

Akeno took a few moments to consider the question before answering. "Well for starters you certainly own him an apology, and an explanation." With that, Akeno stood up and left Rias alone in the room to think about her next course of action.

Rias sighed in frustration at herself. _I really did mess things up. What kind of king would do something like this…_ She thought sadly. _Tatsumi… I hope I can earn your forgiveness…_

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Well that's the end of Chapter 3! I hope that the slight spin on things is enough to keep some of you happy. There was so much damn hate from people thinking I was just sticking him in Rias' peerage, but hopefully now it's clear that I never intended for him to simply join her. I just wanted Tatsumi to become a devil, that's why everything happened like that with Raynare last chapter.

The power remaining inside him from Ophis is pretty much what stopped him from being tethered to Rias, I'll explain it more later on, but for now Tatsumi is an independent devil.

Thanks for reading!


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